While we wait to see what happens in the DVD recordables format war (Blu-ray vs. HD DVD is the new DVD-R vs DVD+R vs DVD+RW vs DVD RAM...etc), Optware has come out with another high capacity storage contender: the Holographic Versatile Card, a credit-card sized optical disc that holds 30 GB. Not only is the HVC smaller, but Optware claims the write speed is three times faster than Blu-ray. Better still, the cards are set to sell for less than $1 (100 yen). The problem? The readers will initially cost close to $2000. Those prices drop fast, though, if the technology takes off. It wasn't very long ago that the first turtle speed DVD recordable drives were selling for $1000+.

Optware has also used their "collinear holographic technique"* on their Holographic Versatile Discs, which can store a terabyte (1024 gigabytes) of data at a transfer speed of a gigabyte per second.

From Nikkei (subscribers can get the full story here).

*A patented technology originally proposed by Optware founder and chief evangelist Hideyoshi Horimai, collinear holography combines a reference laser and signal laser on a single beam, creating a three-dimensional hologram composed of data fringes. This image is illuminated on the medium using a single objective.

Related:
A geeks' primer on holographic storage.